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Rodriguez Creed
Rodriguez Creed is a major character and an optional playable character in LISA: the Hopeful. He is a strict manager, and leads a gang with Beltboy, Lanks, and Cyclops. Appearance and Personality Rodriguez is the stern leader of the gang that consists of Beltboy, Lanks and Cyclops, all of whom had worked under him pre-flash as subordinates of a Wally's franchise fast food restaurant. They follow his orders seemingly out of necessity. He has a short temper and won't hesitate to shout or slap some sense into his party members. He does not think very highly of his crew as he sees them as very incompetent, but still trusts them enough to perform some tasks. He drives a station-wagon that he adores, but runs out of gas during their search, prompting him to order the three to find gasoline for his car. In addition to his behavior, he wears a cowboy hat, which is further emphasized by his preference for using revolvers. Some characters may even comment on his appearance. He also wears a red poncho with a skin colored stripe, complete with tassels. His face is bony and he has a full head of long hair, combined with a mustache and goatee. His facial expression is usually neutral, but occasionally it's angry. The Normal Route After the gang does their deed of finding gasoline and escaping from the Engine Enthusiasts, they would return to find Rodriguez having been decapitated by the Lovelies, who initially tried to hijack his car. With him killed, Beltboy takes charge of the gang and tries to lead them onward to their mission. He is frequently mentioned during campfire sequences, hallucinations and appeared to had commended some respect among his peers. He would also occasionally appear in a flash back. The Rodriguez Route In the Definitive Edition, it is possible to recruit Rodriguez. Recruiting him requires the player to be playing on pain mode and perform a side-quest towards recruiting Reginald, except instead of proceeding to the rest of area 1 as normal, the player must return to Rodriguez. Needing tools, Rodriguez first approves of his gang, but quickly changes his mind when he realizes the toolbox is filled with car decal stickers. Due to this, Rodriguez throws the towel and decides to join Beltboy, thinking that they can't take care of themselves. The tool box will be returned which allows the player to complete the Reginald quest, should they want to recruit him. Although attempting to recruit Reginald will lead to Rodriguez refusing to allow him to join, leaving Reginald to politely promise to pay them back someday. Recruiting Rodriguez leads to a much more different path than normal. Namely, his presence alone helps the player bypass most of area 1, and he can have access to two areas in the game. Because the player will miss out on some battles, Rodriguez' presence and ability to debuff foes can help even out the odds. Unlike the normal route, Rodriguez gains a more prominent role in the story, and his effectiveness as a leader is on full display. Thanks to his experience, and his knowledge on how his gang works, he is more eager to over-power his opposition, and his plans often kick off much better than Beltboy's plans. In addition, he applies his bossy and aggressive attitude to encourage the gang to work harder, but will behave just the opposite to obtain different, yet effective results. He is not without any concern for his gang, as he will give praise where it is due, and does have their well beings in mind. He is also a lot more friendly during the camp fire scenes. Overview of the Rodriguez route If Rodriguez is recruited, he reluctantly leaves his station-wagon behind to help the gang find the gasoline. When they reach the spot where Dixon Bismuth would ambush them to perform his Dumbass Smasher move, Rodriguez briefly separates, taking the full blunt of the blow instead. This allows the gang to fight back and prevent their capture. Upon defeating Dixon Bismuth, Rodriguez will come back to consciousness and the gang will acquire the gasoline that was used to lure them. When they return to the station-wagon, they are able to refuel and continue their journey without incident, with Rodriguez avoiding his fate and the Lovelies entirely. They do get chased by Gordy Golden, seeking revenge against them. This prompts Rodriguez to have Lanks on the wheel while he, Beltboy and Cyclops fend him off. After that battle, the four of them drive all the way to the swamp. Due to the roads being unreliable, Rodriguez is forced to abandon his station-wagon and has to proceed on foot. The swamp area proceeds much of the same, until Beltboy passes out due to an overdose on the Mushroom's gas, where instead of the usual hallucination, Rodriguez will appear and shout for him to wake up. Rodriguez and his crew discover that they were rescued by the Kegger Krew, and the story proceeds the same as before, with the only difference being that Rodriguez attempts to keep Beltboy quiet about revealing their mission, only to accidentally let it slip himself, leading to them to fight the Krew. Afterward, Rodriguez was able to easily take a truck, leading to their travels to the outside of the Sportsdome. Once there, the gang will learn about the tournament, and the reward being the girl whom they supposedly captured. As the gang makes their way, they will run into Master Masters, father of Yogurt Masters. Rodriguez decides to catch up with him, but only so Masters would repay him for an incident that occurred years ago that left him indebted to Rodriguez. Masters gives Rodriguez the Art Style Scroll. Rodriguez calls him out right away, knowing that it's a fake, prompting Masters to give up the True Art Style Scroll. Rodriguez accepts these repayments, with the intent of earning some mags for trading these later. When they enter the Sportsdome, they are put under contract as participants for the tournament. Rodriguez is skeptical about the girl's presence and entertains the idea that they should go see if she's actually present. After a confusion with a Sportster member (who he assumes the gang is there to swap shifts), they proceed through the restricted area. They eavesdrop on a pair of them discussing about the girl's disappearance. The gang was then confronted with another pair of the Sportsters appearing. Unlike the normal route, Rodriguez orders an attack, killing them and escaping. With nowhere else to go, the gang proceeds to the route leading to an orphanage, bringing them to the waterfall and caves. During their journey, Beltboy would point out the chiseled "5" signs that appear throughout their journey upon running into again. He deducts that this could be a trail left behind from the girl. With nothing else to fall back on, they make their way through the waterfall and caves, facing off against the Deep Ones and their leader, Gar Strings. They soon run into another "5" sign. Rodriguez gets a feeling that the girl is close (not noticng they just passed them) and decides to split the gang up. He has Lanks roam alone, feeling that he has proven himself to be a man and thinks he can defend himself. Rodriguez orders Beltboy and Cyclops to go together due to Cyclops lacking an eye and Beltboy never taking his sunglasses off, while Rodriguez himself sets off on his own path. This would prove unwise since the Lovelies show up, the two of them ambushing Beltboy and Cyclops, but then reveals to be a distraction for the other members of the gang to capture Lanks for their own pleasures, at which point, Hart makes himself known. They get away with Lanks, leaving Beltboy increasingly worried and unable to decide on what to do. Rodriguez returns to learn what has happened. Upon Cyclops suggesting they just leave Lanks behind so they can continue their search, Rodriguez immediately insists on rescuing Lanks, putting their quest on hold until their crew becomes whole again. The three of them soon runs into a Lovelies convoy and takes them head-on. If the player completed the requirements to recruit Reginald early in the game, he will arrive at this point to fill the fourth slot, which Rodriguez reluctantly accepts. The gang will eventually meet up with Yogurt Masters. Before he could attack, Rodriguez calls a cease fire. He would then request Yogurt's assistance, willing to trade the True Masters' scroll in exchange for his help in rescuing Lanks. As the gang finds their way through Ice City, they managed to commandeer a storage truck after a scuffle with three of The Lovelies, Rodriguez takes the wheel as he ordered the gang to travel from truck-top to truck-top to find Lanks. It ends with the Joy Mutant blockade putting an end to their travels. Everyone in the gang does survive. They then prepare to face off against what remains of the Lovelies as they get closer to the girl. In the end, Rodriguez leads his gang to Hart at a barricaded building. Hart decides to attack the gang due to losing some of his men to them, leading to a battle. It ends with Hart's gang getting slaughtered (even after mutating), and Hart himself getting killed, but not before mutating and managing to fatally wound the whole gang. With all five characters wounded (besides Reginald, who disappears under mysterious circumstances), Beltboy sees the girl and calls out to her for aid. Unfortunately for them, she does not see how she can benefit from helping five injured men, thinking that they will just try to over power her, and elects to abandon them. This ends with all five of them having made their way inside the building, choosing to die within each others company. If two or more pieces of joy were consumed by anyone, one of them will become a joy mutant after the final battle and ends up slaughtering their own allies. The girl walks out to see the mutant docile, and simply walks around it, leaving it alone, surrounded by bloody mush. Battle Rodriguez works as a somewhat versatile character, playing as a mix of a supporter and a damager. Like Cyclops and Reginald, he operates on using TP for his skills. Similar to Lanks, Rodriguez has some buffing skills, often providing stat boosts and removing ailments for his allies. Because he is TP based, regeneration is done by attacking, guarding, taking damage, or recovering with items to generate more TP. His two offensive moves: 6 Slugs ''and ''12 Slugs, inflicts large amounts of damage due to attacking six times (double damage for the latter). Using either skill will result in him being inflicted with the +Reload ailment, which makes him unable to attack or reuse those two skills for a few turns. This does not bar him from using items or other skills. Starting Equipment * Weapon: Revolver * Head: Cowboy Hat * Body: Itchy Poncho * Accessory: None Trivia * In a couple of camp fire conversations, Rodriguez reveals that he was once married and had a son, although his marriage life ended in divorce and he is uncertain as to his son's status. He does feel confident that his son is doing just fine for himself. * In his route, despite taking the lead for the gang, Beltboy will still take the fore-front. It was stated by the creator that the reason for this is because Rodriguez is lazy and doesn't want to run everywhere. * Rodriguez' "-ass" ''weapon is the Cheapass Revolver. Equipping it plummets his special attack stat, rendering his recovery skills near useless. As a trade-off, he will never be inflicted with the +Reload effect, meaning it is possible to continually spam ''6 Slugs ''and ''12 Slugs without fail, as well as being able to buff and debuff his teammates, save for when TP runs out. * Some players jokingly gave Rodriguez the nickname "McCree" due to their similar looking appearance. * Rodriguez Creed is about fifty (50) to sixty (60) years old, making him the second oldest among the party members, being only beaten in terms of age by Reginald. Source. * Rodriguez's sprites were the first ones made by Taco Salad. Source. * Due to a bug involving Rodriguez not being resistant to the Dead status condition, the specific instance of Heart Squeeze used by Eugenio Estevan can kill Rodriguez in battle, despite him being still present in cutscenes. This bug can be fixed by having him heal at a campfire. * Rodriguez wore his cowboy getup before the Flash, and possibly even to work, as is implied in the flashback Beltboy experiences before being rescued by the Kegger Krew. Source. * Rod's car is named Dorothy. * He hosted a radio show before becoming a Wallyburger manager. * The name "Rodriguez" is actually a hispanic surname. Category:Characters Category:Party Members Category:Pain Mode Category:Gang Leaders Category:Rodriguez's Gang